Aberystwyth Welcomes its First Syrian Family through Community Sponsorship

Community Sponsors in Aberystwyth Welcome their First Syrian Family

Posted by Jonathan Cox1604.80pc on May 20, 2018

Welcoming a new refugee family through community sponsorship

Siôn Meredith, Aberaid

Photo - Siôn and members of the team of volunteers at the airport to welcome a family from Syria

Aberaid is a group of concerned people in Aberystwyth who formed in response to the refugee crisis and who came together to sponsor a refugee family to come and live in our community.

Community Sponsorship has been a lengthy process, longer and more detailed than we anticipated but we have appreciated the level of detail in our planning now that the family has arrived. They have now been living in Aberystwyth for almost a month and the lengthy process has been worth it. It is great that we have been able to offer refuge to a vulnerable family from the war in Syria, and the opportunities available here: school for the children having been home-schooled in Jordan for five years; medical care; and security and peace of mind in a house that the family are making home.

The family are settling well and have made good friendships with other Syrian families, the children are happy to be in school and the parents have started language lessons and are keen to gain employment locally. Nevertheless, the family are still making the transition to a new area, new language and new culture. We have a team of six support volunteers and we meet each week to review and plan. We have learned the importance of being able to adapt plans and to support the family as they settle into a new life in Wales.

In our experience the most important things to do community sponsorship well are:

To have a team of volunteers who are able to give time to the process of gaining approval for community sponsorship and for providing a welcome over the initial weeks and months

To find suitable accommodation for the family early on in the process

To ensure that there is strong local community support and bringing the community with us

We are thankful to have had all of these things in Aberystwyth.

Community sponsorship is well worth doing. We have gained a lot from doing this and we hope that in the future we can welcome more families to Aberystwyth through community sponsorship.

Waltham Forest Council more than doubles their commitment to build social rent homes: from 1200 in 2018 by 2022, to 2800 in 2019by 2022

Cllr Miller, Cabinet Member for Economic Development and High Streets, agrees to work with Waltham Forest Citizens to find first 2 sites for permanently affordable Community Land Trust sites in the Borough in the next year.

School and College pupils take centre stage in drama to highlight the impact of youth violence on their friends and peers.

Our Co-Chairs

Dave Horton, Action in Caerau and Ely

ACE is a community-led organisation that works with local people in the West of Cardiff to develop local networks, assets and activities that help tackle poverty and inequality. ACE are dues-paying members of Citizens Cymru Wales and we see community organising as a crucial aspect of our work, allowing us to tackle systemic injustices that impact on our communities but that are ‘beyond the reach’ of local action alone.

Rev Carole Challis, Vale of Glamorgan Methodist Circuit

We have been members of Citizens since October 2016. The ethos of Citizens sits well with that of the Methodist church and I am excited to be a part of two organisations making a difference to the lives of ordinary people across Wales.

Our Members

We are a democratic alliance of dues-paying member organisations who provide the bulk of our funding and choose our campaigns based on the needs of their communities.

The following organisations are in membership of Citizens Cymru Wales and so can access our community leadership training and support to develop campaigns.